Strieki
Strieki (H; Strikers, Shooters) are the regular infantry forces of Heartland. First established in the midst of the Heartland Revolution around ERA 09-02, they were historically the most numerous of any other ground force formations within the Heartland armed forces, and are known elsewhere for their seemingly unending numbers. History Heartland Revolution In the initial stages of the Heartland uprising, most of the revolting infantry formations were civilians who had formed an impromptu militia by taking up arms, either by stealing weapons or crafting them themselves. As skirmishes developed into full scale battles, and the might of the United Republic's military was brought to bear on the populace, the New Heartland commanders realized that the revolution would inevitably fail if nothing but unorganized militia squads could be raised to combat the occupation. In response, the revolutionaries introduced "Strieki" groups. These were formed of veteran militia squads that had proved themselves in battle through the use of superior tactics and fighting ability. Either small groups of these veteran members would be broken off to use their expertise to train and lead newly armed civilian fighters, or formations made up entirely of veterans, known as "Urudprot" (H; Pureblood) would merge to fashion company-strength formations, who then received additional supplies and food in return for their experience. As the war went on, to the liberated Heartland people the Strieki became a metaphor for the idea that within every man and woman in Heartland there was the spirit of a soldier. The ranks of Strieki swelled, and soon their forces outnumbered the Republic troops to a significant degree. They completed their revolution in ERA 09-02, in addition to sucessfully repelling counterattacks by the Republic, as well as winning victories against the Great Empire during their invasion of the same year. These events christened the Strieki as a highly-effective military force to rival the forces of both of Heartland's enemies. ERA 09-50 Annexation of Zicia In ERA 09-50, Heartland commanders planned to invade the neutral country of Zicia, which bordered Hearland to the south-east. The country, which had managed to maintain it's independence through both savvy diplomacy and a relatively understrength but well trained and armed military, presented severe challenges in it's capture. For example, the country was quite large, and even for the significant numbers within the Heartland Strieki, who were to be the main forces of the operation, they were still thought to be insufficient in numbers to secure the vast country. For this reason, hundreds of thousands of civilians were drafted into service, bolstering the numerical strength of the Strieki. Although technically part of the Strieki formations, these conscripts were poorly trained and armed in comparison to the professional pre-campaign soldiers. Instead of merging these forces with the veterans, new Strieki divisions were raised, composed almost completely of conscripted troops. This lead to the informal distinction of "Real" and "Fake" Strieki divisions. The effectiveness of the individual Strieki combat unit was lessened with it's dilution with inexperienced troops, and this lead to a high casualty rate during the eventually successful campaign. ERA 09-52 Invasion by the United Republic When the United Forces invaded Heartland in ERA 09-52, it was thought that the unprecedented size of the infantry forces would overwhelm and rout the enemy, as they had achieved in the war against Zician. However, the United Republic posed a much greater threat compared to the enemies of the last campaign; for example, their numbers and armament were superior to the Zicians, and although matched roughly against Heartland, the morale and fighting ability of the average Republican infantryman was significantly better than his Heartland counterpart. The response to this problem was fairly mixed; while the poor performance of the conscripts lead to the implementation of elite Gvardia formations, hundreds of thousands of new civilians were drafted, increasing the size of the conscript "fake" Strieki forces exponentially. While this caused severe supply shortages for these divisions, the Strieki proved their worth by eventually turning the tide and preventing the occupation of their country. Present Day After the ERA 09-55 Total War, many of the drafted Heartland civilians were dismissed, reducing the size of the Strieki to around pre-war numbers. To this day, the Strieki remain the most numerous of the infantry formations in Heartland. Category:Premier Timeline